Monk DPS Rotation, Openers, and Abilities — Endwalker 6.4

Monk's rotation as of Endwalker is quite odd - but also quite even. Our gameplay at level 90 revolves around an odd and an even buff window, with optimization focusing on GCD manipulation to ensure that the highest possible damage is dealt within each window. The core pieces of Monk can be broken down into sections for easier digestion. We have the core of our job - our GCDs, the Chakra system, the Beast Chakra system, and then finally, our burst windows, which combine and condense together everything previously mentioned.

As was touched on before, the core of Monk's single target rotation is effectively a priority-based, decision-making flowchart.

• When in Opo-opo form, do you have Leaden Fist active?
  • If yes, use Bootshine.
  • If no, use Dragon Kick.
• When in Raptor form, does your Disciplined Fist buff have more than 6 seconds remaining?
  • If yes, use True Strike.
  • If no, refresh Twin Snakes.
• When in Coeurl form, does your Demolish have more than 6 seconds remaining?
  • If yes, use Snap Punch.
  • If no, refresh Demolish.

Chakra is a resource that we passively gain throughout fights due to our Deep Meditation II and Brotherhood. Using it is easy - simply use The Forbidden Chakra as soon as it becomes available so that you do not overcap Chakra. Overcapping refers to when you are already at five Chakra and generate another, wasting its potential potency.

Riddle of Fire, Riddle of Wind and Brotherhood are our three personal buffs. Riddle of Wind has less nuance than the other buffs; we simply press it and start auto-attacking faster, and it does not interact with the rest of our toolkit much further than that. The best way to use it is to press it on cooldown, as holding it to align with other buffs will likely result in you losing entire usages. Only hold it for buffs if you know your killtime, so you can be sure that you are not going to lose a cast as a result. As for Riddle of Fire and Brotherhood, our rotation is built in such a way to maximize the damage dealt under these buffs. Given the way our rotation works, the optimal way to use these two skills is to simply press them on cooldown immediately as they become available. The one slight caveat to this is that we always want to be weaving Riddle of Fire late into the GCD roll to ensure it will cover all 11 GCDs. Brotherhood does not require late-weaving, as its' placement is for the benefit of the party primarily.

Given that the cooldowns of these skills are 60 and 120 seconds, respectively, this means that every other Riddle of Fire will be without Brotherhood. This is what we call the "odd RoF window," and we always want to put one Masterful Blitz in this window. It is called the odd window as it occurs on every odd minute (for example, on minutes 1, 3, 5, and 7).

Likewise, the "even RoF window" happens on every even minute (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) and consists of both Riddle of Fire and Brotherhood. As this is our strongest burst window, we want to have two uses of Masterful Blitz here.

Perfect Balance is the key to some of our strongest skills - our Blitzes. As mentioned, we always want to be using two Blitzes in our even windows and one Blitz in our odd window. As for when specifically to use Perfect Balance in our rotation, as a general rule, you always want to pop it following an Opo-opo GCD. There are a variety of different combinations of skills you can use to generate each Blitz, though there are optimal ways to build up to each one.

Elixir Field requires we use three GCDs from the same form. We want to choose the Opo-opo form for this, as they are our strongest spammable GCDs. As such, we would use either Bootshine → Dragon Kick → Bootshine, or Dragon Kick → Bootshine → Dragon Kick, depending on whether or not you have Leaden Fist going into the Perfect Balance window.

Rising Phoenix requires three GCDs of unique forms to have been used: one Opo-opo, one Raptor, and one Coeurl, in any order. As for which GCDs to use specifically, this depends. The fact that we can use one GCD from each form makes this a flexible Perfect Balance sequence. It can be used to refresh any timers that will be falling off soon, and if there are none, it can be used to simply press the higher potency GCD from each form.

Phantom Rush will be executed regardless of which Beast Chakra you have generated, so long as you possess both the Solar and Lunar Nadi. As we can press any buttons we like, we want to press the ones that do the most damage. This means that we want to do the Elixir Field GCD sequence of three Opo-opo GCDs.

Celestial Revolution is effectively a consolation prize for when you make a mistake under Perfect Balance, executed when you have accumulated only two different types of Beast Chakra. It has a lower potency than every other blitz while simultaneously being a single-target skill, whereas all other blitzes are AoE. This skill should never be used intentionally.

Following the use of any Blitz skill, we are granted the Formless Fist buff, which we always want to spend on an Opo-opo GCD.

Monk has 4 different openers. There is no single opener that is better than the others for every scenario, and the reason we have this many openers is to account for different situations. You will be choosing which opener to use based on party composition, total fight duration (or killtime), and phase duration.

The Lunar Solar opener is recommended for most general play for two reasons. Firstly, it will ensure that you get the maximum potential uses of Phantom Rush possible throughout an encounter. Secondly, it facilitates our easier rotation which should be used in a majority of situations.

If you are unable to double weave without clipping, move Brotherhood to after the second Dragon Kick and Riddle of Wind until after the second Bootshine.

1. At any point within 30 seconds before pulling, use Form Shift
2. Thunderclap as close to 0 on the pull timer as you can without pre-pulling.
3. Dragon Kick → Grade 6 Tincture of Strength
4. Twin Snakes → Riddle of Fire
5. Demolish → The Forbidden Chakra
6. Bootshine → Brotherhood → Perfect Balance
7. Dragon Kick → Riddle of Wind
8. Bootshine
9. Dragon Kick
10. Elixir Field
11. Bootshine → Perfect Balance
12. Twin Snakes
13. Dragon Kick
14. Demolish
15. Rising Phoenix

The Double Solar opener is reserved for more optimized scenarios. This opener starts by generating two Solar Nadi, hence the name. The reason this is done is that Phantom Rush is effectively a two-minute cooldown, being tied to three uses of Perfect Balance. This means that whichever burst window you use Phantom Rush in, odd or even, it will remain there for the rest of the fight. By generating two Solar Nadi in our opener, we delay our initial Phantom Rush cast into our even window, meaning it is going to be hitting a lot harder than if it were to be used in the odd window. However, due to the fact that we overcap a Nadi, this can potentially lose us a use of Phantom Rush over the course of a fight. As such, this opener is only recommended for an optimized situation where you can reasonably estimate your killtime and know that you are not going to lose that final Phantom Rush cast by following this opener and rotation. This opener also effectively scales with your party composition, as having more two-minute raid buffs in the group facilitate higher DPS compared to other rotations.

1. At any point within 30 seconds before pulling, use Form Shift
2. Grade 6 Tincture of Strength immediately before Thunderclap
3. Thunderclap as close to 0 on the pull timer as you can without pre-pulling.
4. Dragon Kick → Perfect Balance
5. Twin Snakes → Riddle of Fire
6. Demolish → The Forbidden Chakra
7. Bootshine → Brotherhood
8. Rising Phoenix → Riddle of Wind
9. Dragon Kick → Perfect Balance
10. Bootshine
11. Snap Punch
12. Twin Snakes
13. Rising Phoenix
14. Dragon Kick
15. True Strike
16. Demolish

There will be situations in encounters where you are forced to use Riddle of Fire or Brotherhood in non-optimal ways. For instance, sometimes there will be downtime, or a boss will go invulnerable soon after you have used your buffs, which might make you want to hold that usage until you have a target to hit once again. However, sometimes by holding that usage, you will end up losing a use of those buffs over the course of an encounter. This means you have to use them before the downtime and simply accept the shorter buff window. For these situations, we have the early openers. These openers skip the Opo-opo GCD at the beginning in favor of starting with Twin Snakes. This allows us to use our buffs sooner, which means we get slightly more effective uptime on those buffs before whatever forced downtime occurs.

1. At any point within 30 seconds before pulling, use Form Shift
2. Grade 6 Tincture of Strength immediately before Thunderclap
3. Thunderclap as close to 0 on the pull timer as you can without pre-pulling.
4. Twin Snakes → Riddle of Fire
5. Demolish → The Forbidden Chakra
6. Dragon Kick → Brotherhood → Perfect Balance
7. Bootshine → Riddle of Wind
8. Dragon Kick
9. Bootshine
10. Elixir Field
11. Dragon Kick → Perfect Balance
12. Twin Snakes
13. Bootshine
14. Demolish
15. Rising Phoenix

1. At any point within 30 seconds before pulling, use Form Shift
2. Grade 6 Tincture of Strength immediately before Thunderclap
3. Thunderclap as close to 0 on the pull timer as you can without pre-pulling.
4. Twin Snakes → Riddle of Fire
5. Demolish → The Forbidden Chakra
6. Dragon Kick → Brotherhood → Perfect Balance
7. Bootshine → Riddle of Wind
8. True Strike
9. Snap Punch
10. Rising Phoenix
11. Dragon Kick
12. Perfect Balance
13. Twin Snakes
14. Bootshine
15. Demolish
16. Rising Phoenix

As for what to do following the opener, Monk has three different choices for which rotation to follow - Looping, Optimal Drift, and Double Solar. As always, these rotations all have the same core flowchart gameplay, and the differences between them come about in how they handle their buff windows. If you are just dipping your toes into Monk and want to see how it plays, the Loop is quick and easy to get started with to give you a solid grasp of how the job feels. In order to Loop we make a few rotational compromises in order to generate a somewhat easy-to-follow rotation that repeats every two minutes. This is the lowest DPS option of all three rotations, however it is only about 1% lower than the other options, and so will still allow you to perform at a competitive level. If you decide you want to stick with the job then it is strongly advised to learn Optimal Drift, as it is our most flexible rotation and allows you to adjust on the fly to any situation you may find yourself in. Double Solar is reserved for optimal runs with an ideal killtime (finishing after an even window) and a strong two-minute buff comp. In a solo scenario Double Solar is slightly weaker than Optimal Drift, however it scales better raid buffs.

There is no one best opener. Each opener is designed to accommodate different scenarios, and the one you should use depends on your kill time. If you are in a situation where you do not know what your kill time will look like, then you should go with Lunar Solar.

As simple or as challenging as each potential rotation may be, having a level of understanding as to why we do certain things is going to make the learning experience easier. Certain rotations also break some rules, and so it is beneficial to first understand why each rule exists so that you can understand why and when they may need to be broken.

1. Always press Riddle of Fire and Brotherhood on cooldown. The reason here is twofold; it keeps us aligned with party buffs, and it ensures we do not lose buff uses by drifting. Since our rotation is purpose-built, it is important to play around these 60-second intervals.
2. Perfect Balance should always be used following an Opo-opo GCD. Opo-opo GCDs are our strongest, and so this maximizes the amount we can use over a fight.
3. The Formless Fist acquired following any Masterful Blitz should always be an Opo-opo GCD. This is for the same reasoning as above.

As mentioned previously, the looping rotation makes several compromises in order to ensure a clean loop, and the first one begins immediately following the opener. Although the general rule is to always use an Opo-opo GCD following a Blitz, after the Rising Phoenix in our opener, we will instead press Twin Snakes. This sets our rotation back two GCDs to allow for a clean loop. Following this, continue with the typical Monk flowchart gameplay until the first Riddle of Fire window.

Your odd window will be as follows:

1. Bootshine
2. True Strike
3. Demolish
4. Dragon Kick
5. Twin Snakes
6. Snap Punch → Riddle of Fire
7. Bootshine
8. True Strike
9. Snap Punch
10. Dragon Kick
11. Twin Snakes
12. Demolish
13. Bootshine → Perfect Balance
14. Dragon Kick
15. Bootshine
16. Dragon Kick
17. Phantom Rush
18. Bootshine

Of course, the odd window itself is simply the Riddle of Fire and everything contained therein, and the skills shown beforehand are there to show you how we set up our entry to this window. You need not worry about memorizing the setup, as by following the standard Monk flowchart, your GCDs will naturally align this way.

As mentioned, this will repeat every odd minute. The only difference is that each time the Opo-opo GCDs will invert, causing Dragon Kicks to become Bootshines and vice-versa.

From here, simply resume the standard flowchart decision-making until the even window.

The even window will look as follows:

1. Snap Punch
2. Dragon Kick
3. True Strike
4. Snap Punch
5. Bootshine → Perfect Balance
6. Dragon Kick → Riddle of Fire
7. Demolish
8. Twin Snakes → Brotherhood
9. Rising Phoenix
10. Bootshine → Perfect Balance
11. Dragon Kick
12. Bootshine
13. Dragon Kick
14. Elixir Field
15. Twin Snakes
16. Demolish
17. Bootshine

Same as before, this will be how all of your even windows look, with the one exception being that the Opo-opo GCDs will invert. You may also notice that much like the opener, following the Rising Phoenix we use Twin Snakes instead of following the rule of always Opo-opo. This serves the same purpose as when it is done in the opener, allowing the rotation to cleanly loop.

Up until this point, we have been talking about the looping rotation in a full uptime, combat dummy scenario. In that imaginary scenario, this rotation repeats itself cleanly, forever. Real fights generally do not allow for this, so what do we do when our rotation gets misaligned?

There are three different ways in which our rotation can be misaligned.

First is the timer of our Disciplined Fist buff. This is effectively irrelevant. As long as you make sure you are always putting a Twin Snakes before the Demolish in the odd window, this fixes itself - yes, even if it will clip your buff early. This is a total non-issue in the even window given that we use a Twin Snakes in the first Perfect Balance window, again fixing itself.

The second way we can be misaligned is relative to our Demolish timer. This is primarily a concern to us in the odd window, as in the even window, you simply repeat the same thing every time, even if it would cause your dot to clip. Of course, this does mean that since it fixes itself on the even window, you could merely just keep playing, clip on the even window, and then go into the next cycle of the loop fresh. However, there is a way that we can fix this without having to eat the DPS loss of waiting until our even window comes back around.

The way that we fix this is by essentially learning all nine different places Demolish can come up relative to Riddle of Fire, in addition to understanding how to handle each situation. At first, this might seem like it will be a lot to learn, but in reality, it is quite simple as we can solve this issue by cross-referencing a few rules against our knowledge of the job.

Before executing an Opo sequence Perfect Balance window, we always want to have refreshed our Twin Snakes and Demolish beforehand such that they do not fall off mid-burst. This means that we are looking for a natural Demolish to build our Perfect Balance sequence around. When executing our normal rotation, a Demolish will naturally happen once every 9 GCDs. This means that we are guaranteed to have a natural Demolish that we can use to build our burst off of somewhere around Riddle of Fire. But how do we know which nine GCDs to look at? Well, consider the fact that after pressing Perfect Balance, it takes four GCDs to get to our Blitz. This means that we can use Perfect Balance no later than seven GCDs into Riddle of Fire, else our Blitz will fall out of our buff window. Since we want to Perfect Balance after an Opo-opo GCD, this means that the very latest usable Demolish can occur six GCDs into Riddle of Fire. From this, we have identified the nine GCDs we need to be looking at - anywhere from three GCDs before, or six GCDs into, our Riddle of Fire. Once we have located where in those nine GCDs our natural Demolish refresh is, we know that we need to force the Raptor GCD before it to be a Twin Snakes, even if it clips the buff slightly. Once this has been completed, you have fixed your odd windows, and can simply Demolish → Opo-Opo GCD → Perfect Balance → Opo-Opo GCD → Opo-Opo GCD → Opo-Opo GCD → Phantom Rush. Although this means sometimes you may have to use Perfect Balance slightly before Riddle of Fire is available, this is completely fine as your Phantom Rush will still be within the buff window, in addition to a later Demolish refresh.

The misalignment we can face is our Form-to-RoF CD alignment. This is when we end up in the wrong form as Riddle of Fire is coming off of cooldown. Thankfully, if you understand how to fix Demolish alignment, then you can apply the same rules here to know which Demolish to build your burst off of odd windows. Even windows are much simpler, effectively fixing themselves by merit of being linked to a Perfect Balance use.

This rotation is named Optimal Drift as it is a more optimal way of playing than the loop, and your Riddle of Fire entry form drifts back by one every two minutes. Like the looping rotation, Optimal Drift begins with a Lunar Solar opener, but the similarities end there. As opposed to having repeating burst sequences, this rotation instead has variable windows depending on how your GCDs align leading up to Riddle of Fire.

The way that we build our odd windows when doing this rotation is effectively the same as the way you fix the loop being misaligned relative to a Demolish timer. Since we are not looping, our entry to odd windows can consist of any possible GCD alignment. This effectively means that every odd window needs to be "fixed," so by applying the rules learned previously, you will be able to execute any possible odd window alignment that may occur.

The even windows in this rotation are where the real difference comes in. Much the same as how we build odd windows from a Demolish, we build our even windows from any Coeurl GCD. We split hairs further than simply considering a Demolish vs a Snap Punch however. Between each Demolish application, we have two uses of Snap Punch, and each one results in a different overall GCD alignment. This means that each Snap Punch is treated as a unique GCD, as each Snap Punch leads to a different even window sequence. To distinguish between each window, the GCDs will be referred to as Demo, Snap 1, and Snap 2. With this distinction outlined, we can look at how each potential burst window is constructed.

Similarly to odd windows, we consider the fact that we need to fit two Perfect Balance uses and their respective Blitzes in this Riddle of Fire window. Again, this means that we are looking at the same three-GCD window around Riddle of Fire to determine what burst sequence we should follow: the two GCDs prior to, and the one GCD following Riddle of Fire. Depending on which of our three possible Coeurl GCDs falls into this window, there are three different potential burst sequences that we will end up doing.

RoF+BH 1

1. Demolish
2. Opo
3. Raptor
4. Snap 1
5. Opo
6. Raptor → Riddle of Fire
7. Snap 2 → Riddle of Fire
8. Opo → Perfect Balance → Riddle of Fire
9. Opo
10. Demolish
11. Twin Snakes
12. Rising Phoenix
13. Opo → Perfect Balance
14. Opo
15. Opo
16. Opo
17. Elixir Field
18. Opo

RoF+BH 2

1. Snap 2
2. Opo
3. Raptor
4. Demolish
5. Opo → Perfect Balance
6. Raptor → Riddle of Fire
7. Snap 1 → Riddle of Fire
8. Opo → Riddle of Fire
9. Rising Phoenix
10. Opo
11. Twin Snakes
12. Demolish
13. Opo → Perfect Balance
14. Opo
15. Opo
16. Opo
17. Elixir Field
18. Opo

RoF+BH 3

1. Snap 1
2. Opo
3. Raptor
4. Snap 2
5. Opo
6. Twin Snakes → Riddle of Fire
7. Demolish → Riddle of Fire
8. Opo → Perfect Balance → Riddle of Fire
9. Opo
10. Opo
11. Opo
12. Elixir Field
13. Opo → Perfect Balance
14. Twin Snakes
15. Opo
16. Demolish
17. Rising Phoenix
18. Opo

Note that there are three instances of Riddle of Fire in each window. This is because Riddle of Fire can occur on any of those three possible GCDs, not because you need to somehow use the buff three times.

GCDs simply labeled "Opo" or "Raptor" can be either of the two available GCDs in those forms, depending on how your rotation has aligned by following the standard Monk gameplay loop. GCDs that are specified by name are not flexible. Brotherhood is not listed as its placement is irrelevant - as long as you are using it on cooldown, it will always be in the correct place.

The most practical way to learn how to recognize and execute the correct window is to check what Coeurl GCD you are using when the cooldown of Riddle of Fire is between 21.34 - 15.52 seconds. This is because whatever Coeurl GCD you use in this window, you will be using again in nine GCDs, which is the three-GCD window we are looking for. This allows you to prepare in advance. If the Coeurl GCD in this window is Demolish, you will be doing RoF + BH 3. If it is Snap 1, you will be doing RoF+BH 2, and if it is Snap 2, then you will be doing RoF + BH 1.

In a full uptime scenario, RoF + BH 3 should not occur. The most effective way to practice this rotation and make sure you are actually understanding the principles behind it (as opposed to just developing good muscle memory) is to practice on a dummy and randomly insert Six-sided Star to test how well you can identify the correct windows.

The Double Solar rotation is an optimized rotation that follows the Double Solar opener. This rotation is optimized around pushing Phantom Rush back into even buff windows, and as such scales better the more two-minute raid buffs you have in your party, provided you do not lose a total usage of Phantom Rush over the course of an encounter.

The odd windows for this rotation are constructed in the exact same way as in the optimal drift rotation.

Even windows for this rotation are constructed in a somewhat similar way to the Optimal Drift rotation. Again, we are looking for the Coeurl GCD that is happening in the window two GCDs prior to or one GCD following Riddle of Fire, but instead of accounting for which specific Coeurl GCD it is, we simply force it to become a Demolish, even if that means clipping your dot early. Given a full uptime scenario, this only causes six seconds worth of clipping every six minutes, which is well worth the DPS we are able to gain as a result of this slight clip. Similar again to what has previously been discussed, the Raptor GCD before this Demolish should always be a Twin Snakes, even if that means clipping the buff slightly early. Once you have identified the correct Coeurl GCD and forced the Twin Snakes → Demolish, the rest of your burst window practically plays itself, as all that is left to do is use your Perfect Balance charges.

1. Twin Snakes
2. Demolish
3. Opo → Perfect Balance
4. Opo
5. Opo
6. Opo
7. Phantom Rush
8. Opo → Perfect Balance
9. Twin Snakes
10. Opo
11. Demolish
12. Rising Phoenix

The resultant GCD sequence will look like this. The placement of Riddle of Fire simply depends on where in relation to Riddle of Fire your forced Demolish is.

Six-sided Star is acquired at level 80 and has no related form, so it can be used whenever. This is a utility skill rather than something to be incorporated into a set rotation - while it has a potency of 550, its recast timer is double that of every other GCD, and doing any combination of two other GCDs amounts to more than 550 potency. Where Six-sided Star finds use is in situations where we are unable to do two GCDs, making the long recast irrelevant. As such, Six-sided Star can be used as the final GCD before an enemy either dies or goes untargetable, before casting Limit Break, or before having to disengage due to ground AoEs. To aid us in this latter use, Six-sided Star provides a small boost to our move speed for five seconds after use.

Chakra delay is a finer detail of Monk, but nonetheless is worth being aware of. As you will know, Brotherhood guarantees a Chakra generation upon weaponskill execution. It does not grant you this Chakra instantly, however. The Chakra is gained upon damage application. The reason this is somewhat awkward is that not all GCDs are created equally, and some weaponskills have much longer damage applications than others. As an example, Demolish does not apply the damage until 1.604 seconds after you have pressed the button. This means you will not gain a Chakra from Demolish until the very end of your GCD roll. This causes issues in situations where you have four Chakra ready, and your next GCD is a Demolish. The Chakra gained from this will come up too late to spend, and so you will be unable to use The Forbidden Chakra until after your following weaponskill. This means that you have just overcapped one Chakra from yourself, alongside however many Chakra you potentially gained from your party members. There is not really anything that we can do to fix this problem, but nonetheless I believe that there is value in knowing exactly how the tools of your job work.

Unfortunately, due to the fast GCD of Monk, double weaving is effectively impossible unless you have single-digit ping. This presents a problem as there will be scenarios that force you to double weave to avoid drifting buffs. Thankfully, there is a third-party program we can use to mitigate this issue - XIVAlexander. XIVAlexander works by effectively simulating a low ping environment by shaving off some of the animation lock certain skills have. While this is incredibly useful and evens out the playing field for those of us with worse ping, it is still a third party program and so should not be discussed in game. While there are no known bans of users who simply use this tool in a responsible manner (as it is not detectable unless modified to an extreme), I would still stress that you use it at your own discretion.

Triple Blitz windows rely upon long periods of downtime in order to leverage the 20 second durations of both Perfect Balance and Masterful Blitz in order to charge up a Blitz, and then hold onto it until your next Riddle of Fire window whereby the 40 second cooldown of Perfect Balance will have refreshed, netting you an additional buffed blitz at no cost. This is doable due to the fact that our AoE skills will generate a Beast Chakra even if they do not hit any targets, and so can be used in downtime. This is not something that is going to come up very frequently, as there are not many fights that have long enough downtime to accommodate something like this. You are most likely to be able to do this in Ultimate fights due to their tendency to have large chunks of downtime.

There are two different potential triple blitz entries depending on which rotation you are using.

Given that you enter this window with no stored Nadi, you have options on how you wish to structure this window. You can start with either Elixir Field or Rising Phoenix, and depending on which you do the rest of the window will have to change to accommodate your choice. As for which one is better; it depends. Demolish placement will be different depending on which window you choose, either clipping or falling off, which results in all subsequent Demolish uses being in different places in each burst window. This means that phase timing can push one option ahead of the other in terms of DPS, and so you should account for this when making your decision. Below are two potential reopener sequences;

1. Dragon Kick
2. Twin Snakes
3. Demolish
4. Bootshine → Riddle of Fire
5. Elixir Field
6. Dragon Kick → Perfect Balance
7. Bootshine
8. Demolish
9. Twin Snakes
10. Rising Phoenix
11. Dragon Kick → Perfect Balance
12. Bootshine
13. Dragon Kick
14. Bootshine
15. Phantom Rush
16. Dragon Kick

1. Dragon Kick
2. Twin Snakes
3. Demolish
4. Bootshine → Riddle of Fire
5. Rising Phoenix
6. Twin Snakes → Perfect Balance
7. Dragon Kick
8. Bootshine
9. Dragon Kick
10. Elixir Field
11. Bootshine → Perfect Balance
12. Dragon Kick
13. Twin Snakes
14. Demolish
15. Phantom Rush
16. Bootshine

Following on from this your rotation is going to have to change in order to accommodate your new Nadi alignment, as you will enter even windows with a single Lunar nadi. This means subsequent Even windows will become an Optimal Drift/Double Solar hybrid, whereby you need to always be doing Rising Phoenix → Phantom Rush. This is going to start off fine as it sets you up to go into RoF+BH 1 windows, however will get a little awkward as you start to hit RoF+BH 3s. That being said, with such a niché optimisation as this you should really be planning out your entire rotation ahead of time anyway, and as such will need to come up with your own solutions to any problems that may arise as a result.

Given that you being with a Lunar nadi, you are relatively locked in as to how the rest of the window needs to be sequenced.

1. Dragon Kick
2. Twin Snakes
3. Demolish
4. Bootshine → Riddle of Fire
5. Rising Phoenix
6. Twin Snakes → Perfect Balance
7. Dragon Kick
8. Bootshine
9. Dragon Kick
10. Phantom Rush
11. Bootshine → Perfect Balance
12. Dragon Kick
13. Twin Snakes
14. Demolish
15. Rising Phoenix
16. Bootshine

As usual, this is much simpler than the choices Optimal Drift has.

A few key points to keep in mind regardless of the route you may end up going choosing to follow when attempting a triple blitz window is that it starts quite late relative to other jobs reopeners. As such you may have to modify your burst in order to better catch your groups timings and have the ability to place Brotherhood at a better time for your party. This could mean possibly doing an early reopener variant, which would involve starting on Twin Snakes and inverting all of the following Opo GCDs. To reiterate, given the specific conditions required to pull off a triple blitz window it will be incredibly rare you find opportunities to actually implement this technique, and given the particular nature of these windows each will most likely require some additional fine tuning or planning in order to account for the specific counter therein. There will be no universal solution to the ways that these windows may occur in real encounters, and so will require meticulous planning if you want to squeeze out the absolute most potency possible.

Our FPS matters when it comes to our GCD speed, as the game waits until the next frame is rendered after your GCD is up to execute the action you currently have queued. What this means in practice is that the GCD the game shows on your tooltip may not necessarily be accurate, resulting in a potential loss of GCDs over a large span of time. Given a consistent frame rate, your effective GCD including FPS may be calculated via GCD+((1-GCD*FPS) mod 1)*1/FPS, where "GCD" is the GCD speed shown on your in-game tooltips, "FPS" is your framerate, and "mod" indicates the usage of the modulo operation. This is easier to understand by graphing the results of this for a given tooltip GCD. The graph for a 1.96 tooltip GCD looks as follows;

As you can see, there are clearly certain framerates that are preferable to others. Each dip in the graph represents your effective GCD speed accounting for FPS being as close as possible to the advertised tooltip GCD, which occurs every 1+50n FPS where n is an integer, for example, 1FPS, 51 FPS, 101 FPS, etc.

At Monk's ideal GCD speed of 1.94, the rotation drifts slightly as you are forced to hold Riddle of Fire briefly in order to accommodate the late weave slot. This can be mitigated somewhat via third-party software that will minimize the amount of required Riddle of Fire drift in order to retain our ideal late-weave spot while simultaneously minimizing how much we drift out of our teams' 60/120s raid buffs. Both the ReAction plugin available via Quicklauncher and XIVAlexander have FPS aligning functionality, which will save you having to use something like Rivatuner to lock your FPS to a specific number.

To offer a simplified explanation of the problem, the GCD speed shown in-game is not strictly accurate, being variably slower based on your frame rate. For example, if your game displays a 1.94 GCD, but you play at 60 FPS, your actual GCD is closer to 1.95; as a result of this, after 106 GCDs (or roughly 206 seconds) you would be a full GCD behind someone who was playing at 1.94 but had an optimal frame rate. At the same, you can also suffer even when not a full GCD behind. With regards to end of fight/phase scenarios, if you were for example 1/3 of a GCD ahead, for randomly distributed encounter durations you would lose a full GCD in one in three of those. This is also not the only place where losses can occur due to frame rate; again, assuming 1.94 GCD 60 FPS, you would lose out on buff alignment over the course of a fight as you would be forced to slightly hold Riddle of Fire on each use in order to late-weave it, gradually pushing you further and further out of raid buffs.

Locking your frame rate at specific values via Rivatuner or using the FPS functionality of either ReAction or XIVAlexander mitigates these issues by aligning your GCD with your framerate as closely as possible such that you have minimized wait times before queued actions are executed. Please note again that third-party tools are to be used at your own discretion.

Celestial Revolution is strictly a consolation prize for when you make a mistake during Perfect Balance and should never be used intentionally.